PML-Q’s ‘white paper’ on govt’s 100-day performance
ISLAMABAD, July 3: The Pakistan Muslim League-Q has released a ‘white paper’ on what it termed failure of the government to fulfil promises made in the 100-day programme announced by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani after securing a unanimous vote of confidence from the National Assembly.
PML-Q’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat, said at a news conference here on Thursday that the coalition government had failed to solve any of the problems faced by the poor people.
He said the parliamentary democratic system was in jeopardy because of disputes among the coalition partners on domestic and foreign policies.
He refuted the government’s claims of providing relief to the common man and said its policies had caused an inflation of 22 per cent in two months against last year’s four per cent. Prices of petroleum products, he said, had been increased by 45 to 66 per cent. He said food prices had also risen sharply.
Mr Hayat said that government functionaries were making contradictory statements about the operation launched in the tribal areas and it seemed to have dropped the option of dialogue and opted for use of force.
He said the country was drifting towards a disastrous situation because of the incompetence of the rulers.
Criticising the petroleum ministry, he said CNG stations had fleeced consumers because of its erroneous announcement regarding increase in prices.
He said only corruption cases had been withdrawn under the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) during the past 100 days and no steps had been taken to mitigate the sufferings of the people.
He rejected reports about conspiracies being hatched by the presidency and said that Prime Minister Gilani had claimed that he was enjoying all the powers of the chief executive.
He said the PML-N had voted for increasing the number of Supreme Court judges to 29 but it was now claiming that it had not proposed the amendment in the Finance Bill.
He said the coalition government was continuing with the policies of its predecessors and had failed to change the policy about the United States.
Mr Hayat said the opposition had fulfilled its promise of playing a positive role but the government had not been able to take off even after having spent 102 days in office.
He said the opposition had set a new tradition of accepting election results and avoiding actions which could create chaos.
He accused the rulers of betraying the mandate of the people by making false promises.
The PML-Q leader said that the leadership which had promised to reduce the prices of essential commodities to the 1999 level was increasing the prices of every item of daily use.
He said the coalition government had neither implemented the ‘Charter of Democracy’ nor the election manifestos of the parties in the government.
He said it was evident from the fate of the ‘Bhurban accord’ that the Pakistan People’s Party and the PML-N had lost confidence in each other.
Mr Hayat said the prime minister had ordered release of the detained judges but his government had failed to reinstate them.
He said the allegation that the previous government was responsible for the economic woes made no sense because the county had not witnessed in the past anything like the chaos that was now prevailing.